welcome to "newsline." it's friday, august 2nd. i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. edward snowden walked out of an airport in moscow after more than weeks inside. russian officials granted him a

one-year asylum. it angered u.s. leaders and left relations up in the air. snowden arrived from hong kong in late june and has been holed up in the transit zone ever since. his lawyers say he is free to go. >> translator: snowden has left the airport anded hadded for a safer place. >> he wants to move on to latin america that offered him permanent asylum. he worked on contract as an intelligence analyst for the national security agency. he told the guardian newspaper and other media that agents collect private internet and phone data. they defended the surveillance programs saying they prevented terrorist attacks. spokes purposes for the russian presidential office said the decision grant asylum will not affect relations with the u.s. the white house press secretary was less clear cut. >> we are extremely disappointed

that the russian government would take this step despite our clear and lawful requests to have mr. snowden expelled to the united states to face the charges against him. >> he said president barack obama would attend the g-20 summit in st. petersburg in september, but the president may cancel a meeting with the russian president. snowden released a statement on the wikileaks website and said over the past eight weeks, the obama administration has shown no respect for international or domestic law. he said in the end the law is winning. reporters at the guardian are taking full advantage. they report that over the last three years and the national security agency has given about $150 million in secret funding to a british intelligence agency. the newspaper said the government paid the money to the

government communications headquarters. they wanted to secure access to and influence over britain's intelligence gathering programs. the guardian said they are pouring money into efforts to gather personal information from mobile phon. the document suggests agents want to be able to exploit any phone, anywhere, any time. the newspaper said the funding raises fears about the hold washington has over prit an's biggest and most important intelligence agency and asked whether dependency on the nsa has become too great. >> italy's supreme court upheld a ruling for berlusconi. it could 3 the government into crisis. judges upheld a jail sentence and that's automatically reduced to a year to the law aimed at

reducing overcrowding in prison. they recrewed the second part of the sentence, a foof-year ban from public office. >> that are i argued that berlusconi used offshore companies to buy the rights for u.s. movies. they said he lied when declaring how much he paid and avoided about $9 million in taxes. he said in a video message that the fraud he had been convicted of is cleompletely unfounded. he has the second largest party in the ruling government and the ruling could destabilize a shaky coalition. >> the leaders ofity low's baghdad government warned protesters to end their sit-ins. members of morsi's power base in

the muslim brotherhood are not backing down and call on reports after friday's prayers and two squares in the capital. they are placing sandbags on roads to the squares to block security forces. some say they will not leave even if their lives are at risk. more than 1,000 people were killed in iraq in july. acts of terrorism and violence amid escalating sectarian tensions have been cited as the cause. it's the highest monthly death toll in years. the un assistance mission said nearly 90% of the deaths were civilians. on monday 48 people were killed in baghdad when more than ten bombings occurred within 90 minutes. disconat the present time is growing towards the shia-dominated administration of al maliki. a string of attacks by sunni and shia extremists is fueling the conflict. officials of european union nations have urged the

parliament to happened over passengers's personal data to authorities. they want to stop a number of young people from flying from europe to fight in syria. they say about 700 such youth mainly from migrant muslim communities in europe are going into combat on the side of the insurgen insurgents. the young people joined the battle against the regime of the president over the past two years. opean union claims they may be militant and plot acts of terrorism after the turning home. the interior minsters of nine eu nations including france and belgium issued an emergency statement and they want the parliament to allow the countries to share passenger data to monitor young nationals. experts remain cautious about the proposal due to privacy concerns.

zimbabwe's application leader said the vote has been marred by legal violations and challenged the man who has been in power for 3 years. mugabe is running for the 6th term and the third time he faced off against the rifle. he is the leader for democratic change. mugabe held power since zimbabwe was independent from britain in 1980. his time in office has been marked by hyper inflation. in the 2008 election, he lost the first round to tsvangirai and he stood down against supporters left more than 200 people dead. leaderses around the world pressured him to reform his administration and he came together with a unity government. he kept the presidency and took the office of prime minister.

their uneasy power sharing arrangement lasted five years. about 6.4 million people are registered to vote. we spoke with some of them in the capital. >> voters joined long lines casting their ballots. some had to wait for hours and some hope for stability. others are hoping for change. none want more violence and unrest. mugabe led zimbabwe for more than 30 years. over and over he reminds voters about achievements, confronting the west as the liberator. to some here he is a hero who freed them from british rulers who led them to independence.

>> zimbabwe >> mugabe has called for better ties with the west. to shore up the economy. he said mugabe has to go. >> i think the most honorable thing for mugabe to do is to respect zimbabwe. >> they saw prices skyrocket through years of hyper inflation. the national debt as a percentage of gross domestic product as climbed to one of the

highest in the world. for years he has been able to calm the voters in villages. he distributed land, providing some to those who have none. recently more and more of those voters have become critical of their president. many journalists out of fear of the loyalists, but some agreed to talk. he lives with his wife, 3-year-old daughter and grandmother. he said the rulers are living in luxury while the poor suffer. >> he is desperate for change for the future of his daughter.

he thinks change won't be possible as long as mugabe is in power. >> the growing use of internet worked against mugabe. users exchanged comments critical of him on social networking sites. he imposes strict censorship over the media, but he has not been able to tighten control online. >> i think the internet is a good source of information. it gives you balanced detail. >> the voting was carried out peacefully on the whole, but already tsvangirai claims fraught. >> the conclusion is the

credibility of this election is marred by the administrative and legal violations which affect the legitimacy of its out come. >> they wonder whether the peace will hold if the results are disputed. nhk world. >> for years people around the world have been warning the japanese to reign in their high debt. analysts at the monetary fund have made this call before and they are doing it again. we go to the business desk with more on that. what are the analysts saying? are. >> they evaluate japan's current economic policies highly. they say so-called abenomics could be an engine of growth, but the imf analysts are cautious. they are calling on japan to step up fiscal reconstruction and move forward with structural reforms. imf analysts released a report on the impact of national economic policies on the global economy. they said japan could lose

confidence if fiscal rebuilding is delayed. they said it could cause long-term interest rates to rise by 2% and the market confusion could cause losses up to 2% of global gdp. analysts assess the effects of a weaker yen and said a sustained 10% fall in the yen's exchange rate could reduce growth in china and south korea by 0.1 to 0.2%. the nations compete with japan as exporters. they said they would be net growth spill overs as economic policies are fully implemented. u.s. stock prices rallied on thursday and key indeces posted record highs. the dow jones industrial average ended at 15,628, up 128 points from wednesday's close. the s&p 500 ended above 1700 for the first time after strong data

on factory growth helped to improve overall sentiment. to see how all that will affect stocks here, let's go to the tokyo stock exchange. good morning. investors were keeping a close eye on data, but earnings here could also sway centiment. >> very good morning to you. all eyes have been on u.s. data and the fed so far this week. of course with the key out of the u.s. later today and earnings from toyota. we may see trade and a little bit of a range today. positive nevertheless. let's have a look for friday, august 2nd. the nikkei is up 1 and 1/4%. a positive start for august after july ended in the negative for the nikkei. as investors are taking positives out of key earnings results. the banking sector and blue chip electronics and autos so far reporting improved numbers and

maintaining the outlook as well. >> sony reported after the bell and saying it returned to a profit in the fiscal and that was largely on the back of a weaker yen. sharp posted an operating profit of $30 million and that's in contrast to an earlier projection of a loss of $100 million. a positive twist there for sharp as well. we also have focus on autos and sales in the u.s. them gains on u.s. counterparts and toyota releases earnings today after the marks close so big focus on autos. >> give us a picture on how currencies are trading. >> obviously the dollar playing a big factor in how stocks trade as well. 99.40-41 and it did rise after the manufacturing data in the u.s. improved. all eyes on the jobs data in the u.s.

the the european central bank and more later on. toyota's earnings will be a big focus here and we will get domestic sales figures from a fast retailing to operate also later today after the markets close. a lot of focus there. both on domestics in the retail sector and the auto sector there. we get the market reaction from all of that when we come back on monday. back to you. >> thanks a lot for that update. from the tokyo stock exchange and as he mentioned, central bank policy makers decided to keep their benchmark interest rate unchanged at a record low level. ecb policy makers met on thursday and agreed to hold the kai rate at 0.5%.

afthcy board meeting, ecb president told reporters he expects the key interest rate to stay at the current low level. he said it will be for an extended period of time and maybe cut further. >> monetary policy stands and continues to be geared towards maintaining the degree of monetary accommodation and warranted by the outlook for price stability. and promoting stable money market conditions. it there by provides support and recovery in economic activity in the remaining part of the year and in 2014. >> the earo zone economy remains sluggish. it stood at 12.1% in june. that's the latest in business. i will leave you with a check on markets.

. >> next, art across borders. the event held in the inland sea to the west of japan features 200 works of art. this year a new direction features projects linking japan to other asian plants and territories. we have a report from the festival. . >> a spot of this year's program, 100 people came to japan from bangladesh for an

exchange of ideas between the two countries, artists and other creatives. >> japan and bangladesh had economic ties, but cultural ties not. this is wonderful and hopefully we can come again as a part of this very soon. >> a gallery displaying on the island. this is an elementary school turned into a gallery. artists from seven asian countries and regions including hong kong, thailand and indonesia each took over a classroom with the art. >> i think you should get together more often and bring more people to asia to see our creativity. >> some have been in the local community while they work.

this is a man from taiwan. he has created a gigantic work of art that stands ten meters tall. he used a mix of materials from both countries. scrap material from people on the island. this strange shape represents the food of the box and a native of taiwan. when the fruit falls into the ocean, it is carried by the currents and sometimes even making it all the way to japan. the aim is to create art that transcends borders like the fruit. >> translator: the path of the box fruit is the same as that taken by humans long ago. my concept is the world as one

family. >> this is the ko district. it's a small village of 60 residents, most are elderly and seeing a dip in population. it's been growing recently. he and 20 other artists have been living here in the village for the past month. local people seem to enjoy the interaction overseas. >> whether they are from taiwan or elsewhere, all of them are like friends now. >> they named the work beyond the border, the ocean. the strips of cloth hipped by the wind represent the concept of drifting by the ocean.

>> it's easy to talk about going beyond national borders and it sounds great. actually doing it is difficult. i think the ability to try and take that action is amazing. >> the power of art is that it strengthens communication between people. i think it is the strongest thing there is. >> he said art is not an object, but an action. it is intended to create people discuss and interact and to deepen ties between different countries. in, hk world. >> time now for a check on the weather. there is a storm heading towards parts of vietnam and southern china.

we have more in world weather. >> that's right. we have been watching a tropical storm over the south china sea moving into the island today and make a landfall in northern parts of site nam on the weekend. the name means swallow and like the name it will move at a slow pace. the rainfall will be huge. we expect about 115 millimeters of rain to fall on the saturated ground. the potential for flooding and land slights is going high. not just this area, but also the west coast of the indo china peninsula you see more heavy rain because the tropical disturbance. flooding will be a main concern as well. towards the north, we will see locally heavy rain and rt pas of the western japan that include the prefecture with tremendous record amounts of rain for a few days. normal rain is welcomed.

mostly dry over the pacific. the system is extending into eastern china, raising temperatures once again. shanghai at 38 degrees. you have been experiencing the hottest summer in 140 years. naha is 35 degrees, the highest temperature of this year. across the eastern half of japan at 29 degrees. north america wants heavy showers across the eastern third of the u.s. including washington, d.c. as well as new york city and on friday, heavy rain will linger in the southeast and north eastern part of the u.s. and southeastern canada. on thursday small tornados are possible. across the mid-section of the u.s., this is the area with a series of low pressure systems moving through. isolated tornados and damaging wins and hail will be a problem into your friday.

showers are likely for the southwest and dry. mostly dry across the northwest dan temperatures are pleasant in the area. 37 in houston and oklahoma city. finally in europe then across western europe, quite high temperatures yesterday. the mercury hit 34 degrees in london and paris you saw the high going up to 35 degrees. i want to show you this video from paris. after temperatures above average, paris baked on thursday, rocketing temperatures that have driven sun bathers to cool off the fountains across from the eiffel tower. this july was the third hottest on record. they advise people not to wade in the fountains and say the water is not clean and everyone

can help enjoy it. it looks fun, but many people don't need to hit the beaches or fountains on the weekend because cooler air is expected to move in from the west. on friday 33 and here's the extended forecast. #

>> before we leave you this hour, we are going to take you to kyoto where some women have been honoring a summer tradition. entertainers known as miko visit their teachers on august 1st every year to thank them for their help. they want to see dance and music instructors in the city's district. the women greeted the owners where they performed. #

>> the first day of august. >> that is all for this edition of "newsline." i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. do join us again.

captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> woodruff: edward snowden, the leaker of u.s. surveillance secrets, was granted asylum in russia today. he walked out of the moscow airport where he had been holed up for more than a month. good evening, i'm judy woodruff. >> brown: and i'm jeffrey brown. on the "newshour" tonight: we get reaction from washington and moscow and talk with former national security agency officials about the scope of u.s. spying programs.